Consciousness and higher intelligence in fish

Hm fish - consciousness in fish? Intelligence? Sentience? ...they are "just" fish I can hear the people say.

Of course there is the inborn, instinctual survive and reproduce kind of intelligence any life form seems to possess. What constitutes life is still in hot debate, especially now that computers are being developed who are more and more human like. But that is another topic.

Here is the observation  I made a few weeks ago in the fish tank I take care of: One of the fish had a lesion on one of his scales, or better, it seems the scale had come off and an infection was trying to set in. I upped the frequency of the water changes...it got better, then worse. It is a huge tank with a bio-filter, to treating with an antibiotic is not really easy. However, like I had done before, I made fish food disks soaked in antibiotics. So I timed the throwing of it  with the fish position and movement, and YEAH ...he ate it ....

and then SPAT IT OUT ....

I was like ...WHAT? Did he just do that?

For some reason, call it human arrogance or ignorance ...it just never occurred to be they would taste the difference and then decide to, or rather - reflexively - spit out  food.

My estimation of fish and reptile intelligence jumped ...and it - as a resulting side effect - caused me even more uneasiness bordering on pain now than before to see images of fishing - for human fun and relaxation especially. What about the fish? Your idea of relaxation is hurting fish?

So today I came across this article and very short video on fish inter-species cooperation. It just confirms something about fish - and since I just recalled it, there is a video of Valerie Taylor and the Moray eel she used to visit. I'll look for it too (embedded below) - mind-blowing. BTW, don't just try that yourself with those eels - they can and will bite you.

.... and while I am at it, here is a short story of someone who had an encounter with a fly :)

"So I had this annoying big fly bothering me while I was working on the computer yesterday afternoon. One of those that never land, just loud buzzing. I wasn't successful in hitting it. So I said to the fly, if you would just land and let me catch you I will not kill you but set you free. No kidding, it landed and let me pick it up and return it outdoors. Love when that happens." - Karen R.


The quantum world works in as yet mysterious ways. It really is all alive and conscious and don't for a moment think it does not include plants, rocks, single cells or macro-dimensional celestial bodies. Is there a hierarchy of some kind, sure, those fish sure can't make a video or write a blog, and they most likely won't be doing any "Work on Self" ...on the other hand ...you could not survive at all where they live either - only humans are able to build things in which they could. And in Buddhism, animal births are usually considered lower births ...which is not to say that higher beings cannot be born as an animal ...if that would serve the transformation of certain souls/beings.

It is all - LIFE - the incarnation and expression of the great Being
The shiva and shakti.

Spooky action at a distance and the law of attraction begin to make sense in the quantum world.

Can transformation happen through more and more intimate exploration of  and attention on the natural world? ...You bet. Here is a link if you have not read read about a rooster, "Blacky" and a point he drove home for me in a way like never before.

Anyway, here is the article about the fish inter-species cooperation - that page will take you off this website

Fish as good as chimpanzees at choosing the best partner for a task

Here is Valery Taylor's story with the eel

Sometimes I get a hint of this: Life exists and does what it does for the Absolute to FEEL - or - Life/creation is the vehicle of big heart - and then there is consciousness and big mind.

In the end, what is it that matters while we are here? incarnate on earth?

The compassionate non-vegetarian?

Since I can remember, I have always loved animals, even though the only ones we ever had at home were a couple of parakeets, and my sister had a hamster. Once we found an injured wild baby rabbit which we nursed back to health and then set free. We explored the world of frogs and tadpoles. We delighted in the sighting of any wildlife on walks. I played with and eventually fed a neighbor's collie, who started to stay in the back of our house at night. He was eventually given to a farm by it's owners. Still,even though I never had any of my own,  I loved animals. Wherever we moved, there were always bird songs in the spring and songbirds to observe raising their young. We did get to watch all animal shows on TV and back then in Germany, they were good documentaries on all kinds of wildlife and their habitats, animal's lives and plight. My favorite animals were dolphins, then dogs (German Shepherds and Collies especially), horses, songbirds, wild cats, rabbits, cows, deer, foxes, birds of prey, wolves, and you name it. Once my dad told us about having to kill a mouse - and how  that is when it's just there, still, looking at you with these big brown eye's asking: why are you doing this? And I understood it then, and even more so now.
We also often got game from farmers during hunting season, parts of a deer, rabbits, occasionally wild boar. I learned to skin and gut rabbits. We also, already way back then, tried to get eggs from free ranging chickens and beef from a cow that had been allowed the life of a cow on a pasture.This was after it became known how the animals were kept.
I have eaten meat most of my life,  once or twice a week, and in recent years only chicken from free range organic farms.
And then Skye came into my life, this majestic German shepherd husky and because of wanting to do the best for her, I looked up a lot of dog related stuff online and inevitably came across all the horrific accounts and images of abused dogs, neglected dogs and the whole domain of the plight of dogs in shelters and their killing and for the first time in my life, I could imagine being an activist - in fact, in my own way, I became one.  Sensitized, I also watched the Video: Glass Walls, below. And even though I had sort of known for a long time, this time it hit home in a different way. You could say: I feelingly awakened to a new level.


I became a vegetarian, and it has been easy.

Compare this to a dog in a shelter

I have friends who also became vegetarians, and I have friends who point out the detrimental effects of grains on human digestive systems, and the benefit of an all meat diet. There is the right diet for your blood type theory. There are camps pro and con vegetarian, meat eating, and the health benefits of each. Even Buddhists don't forbid the eating of meat.
To summarize what the suttas tell us: it appears that one may, with a clear conscience, receive, cook, and eat meat that either was freely offered by someone else, or that came from an animal who died of natural causes. But as to purchasing meat, I am just not sure. There are no clear-cut answers here.
We are all guilty of complicity, in one way or another and to varying degrees, in the harming and death of other creatures. Whether we are carnivore, vegan, or something in between, no matter how carefully we choose our food, somewhere back along the long chain of food production and preparation, killing took place. No matter how carefully we trod, with every step countless insects, mites, and other creatures inadvertently perish under our feet. This is just the nature of our world. 
from "Frequently Asked Questions About Buddhism", edited by John T. Bullitt. Access to Insight, 18 March 2011, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bullitt/bfaq.html.

I also am not sure that my body does not need meat to do better, my own sense is that is does. Maybe I'll see an specially trained doctor for guidance on the matter.
So the dilemma is there, how can I possibly eat meat again, even if my body needs it? I am not in principle and under all circumstances opposed to meat-eating for everyone. I oppose and object to the mal-treatment of animals and the misuse of the earth's resources in order to "raise meat" commercially the way we do, no matter which or where. But could I kill them? In a survival class with Tom Brown Junior, the Tracker, the groups were each given a white rabbit which we were to kill for food and usage of the fur. This did not go without the teaching of the sanctity of it's life and the way to kill with a sudden blow. So, you get the gist - there are many different kinds of ways to look at the entire issue of food, including meat. Someone once said, as the topic came up and we were munching on carrots and other vegetables: ask them what THEY have to say about that - as if they did not have to give their life to become food, and I can tell you - if you do it with enough sensitivity, pulling out weeds or harvesting gorgeous lettuce hurts too.

Then there is the issue of: if we can eat cows and pigs and chicken, why not horses, and dogs and cats and monkeys and goats and sheep...and the list goes on, whatever happens you are able to find.
Yet, they are all these beautiful sentient beings with feelings and their life's purpose.
Recently I have come across lots of outrage of the Chinese eating dogs and their general disrespect in how those dogs get treated, with lots of comments calling the Chinese barbaric. But I ask you, watch the video below and then tell me: how are we less barbaric in this country? How can anyone not think this is atrocious and monstrous? Just saying, it is not a Chinese characteristic. In fact, we as a society may be more barbaric - they simply use dogs as food culturally, not having lived with dogs at the same level of companions as we in the West have been relating to dogs.Of course they skin them alive...I don't know how they can do it....




This one is about eating meat or not. Are we human designed or meant to eat meat? Are we supposed to "outgrow" our need for meat as we ascend the evolutionary ladder to a more awake and enlightened species? Does it depend on your genetics?
It is also about how we go about caring for the animals we breed as life-stock and giving them a life in the process as well as honoring and thanking them for giving their life for us.
It is also about how we choose which animal is ok to eat and the cultural differences and traditions.
It is about the life on this beautiful planet and how to honor all sentient beings, about giving and taking and sharing and sacrifices and the deep respect for other forms of life.
Can there be a compassionate non-vegetarian?


In looking for some images, I came across this blog - this is what happened to me too: the images - and once you really know, you cannot "unknow"
the-face-on-your-plate